A new report released last
week by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign documented a four percent
rise in New Jersey pedestrian deaths in 2004. The report, Still at
Risk: Pedestrian Safety in New Jersey looks at preliminary data from
the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety as well as data from
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to find that a total of
153 New Jersey pedestrians were killed in traffic collisions in 2004, up
from 147 in 2003.

With pedestrians comprising
more than 1 in 5 traffic deaths, New Jersey is the third deadliest state
for walkers by that measure, behind New York and Hawaii. Still at Risk
finds that pedestrian deaths have held steady at about 150 per year over
the past ten years, 1995 to 2004. This despite efforts to make New Jersey
a state where "residents and visitors are able to conveniently walk
and bicycle with confidence and a sense of security in every
community."

New Jersey counties with
the most pedestrian deaths in 2004 were in the denser areas of north
Jersey. In terms of the percentage of total traffic deaths that were
pedestrians, counties in both north Jersey and along the Jersey shore
ranked at the top. Southern Jersey counties ranked near the top of the
list in terms of pedestrian fatalities per capita.

Unfortunately, New Jersey’s
ambitious goals to make the state more walkable and bikeable haven’t
been embraced everywhere in the state. Some local officials continue to blame
the victims for pedestrian deaths. "It’s not so much the
engineering, but the individuals who are making the wrong decisions when
they’re crossing these major arteries," Atlantic County Office of
Highway Safety Director Michael Schurman told the Press of Atlantic
City. An odd statement given that major arteries are notoriously
dangerous for pedestrian precisely because they’ve been engineered to
move as many cars as possible as fast as possible.

Despite the funding crunch,
New Jersey needs to do more to protect pedestrians. Still at Risk
recommends that New Jersey increase bicycle and pedestrian funding via
the Transportation Trust Fund, create a dedicated funding source for the
state’s "Safe Streets to School" program, identify and improve
the most dangerous roads and streets for pedestrians, encourage the
implementation of traffic calming to make walking safer, and fully fund
the Transportation Enhancements program.

NJ DOT Commissioner Jack
Lettiere concurred with these recommendations in the Bergen Record,
telling the paper, "I wish we could double or triple the [school
pedestrian safety] program, because we get an enormous number of requests,
and unfortunately you just run out of money. The pot’s got to get
bigger."